What a complete mess!
I wasn't sure what to expect from this, but I didn't suspect it would be too terrible.
By all rights, this should have been more of a mystery/thriller, but it's tangled in a web of proto-slasher. I'm thinking _Black Christmas_ (1974), and _Halloween_ (1978) had something to do with it. There's a reason people still talk about those classics, but no one talks about this one.
Maybe the only saving grace here is our lead, Rebecca Balding, as Scotty. What a babe! Even with her '70s helmet hair, she is a damn knockout.
The only reason I wanted to watch this is because of Barbara Steele. Half way through the movie, I was thinking "where the hell is she?!" She does eventually pop up, but even the Queen herself can't save this tragedy.
So much of this needed to be cut out. Too much time is wasted on details that just don't matter. It's always a bad sign in a horror movie when we spend time with the cops as they talk about solving the case.
I think there might have been a good horror movie in here somewhere, it just had the rotten luck of being made between the era when period gothic horror was on its way out, and slashers were on the way in.
I can't recommend this to anyone. There was a scene with Balding that made it worthy of one watch, but beyond that, a huge waste of time.